Planners Moving Forward Series- Leah Cerri, Collective High
Leah Cerri, of Collective High, brings awareness of how they adapted to COVID-19, communicating and lessons learned and sharing how they are viewing the meetings and events industry in a post-pandemic world.
Luke Whalin
Apr 8, 2022
This post is part of the HopSkip Planner Spotlight Series where HopSkip spotlight's planners across the industry to bring awareness of how they adapted to COVID-19, communicating and lessons learned and sharing how they are viewing the meetings and events industry in a post-pandemic world.
Name: Leah Cerri
Company Name: Collective High
Job Title: Co-Founder
Years of Experience: 5
How do you think you are positioned, after months of persevering with the pandemic, to take advantage of our new and disrupted meetings/events landscape?
I'm seeing a lot of large scale cannabis events and conferences resuming. In the early months of the pandemic, I was working for an organization that pivoted all in-person events to digital. I led this process but it was incredibly challenging at that point because a lot of the tech platforms weren't fully optimized for events and I couldn't find one integrated solution. I've seen a lot of new options created as a response and it now is possible to host meetings and conferences online and have many of the offerings, albeit in a revised way, that you'd expect if they were in person. However, for me personally and the types of events I like to design and attend, there is no substitute for in-person gatherings and I cannot wait until they safely ramp up in full force again.
As our community moves forward with planning in person meetings, what new technologies or processes are you implementing that you may have not looked at before?
We organized a cannabis themed large scavenger hunt in San Francisco and used Discord for interaction to keep the attendees engaged, answer questions, and share photos and comments. This event was very Covid-safe, with attendees completing the scavenger hunt alone or with their pods, but we still needed a solution for guests to get help, engage with the brands, and stay connected. It worked really well. I've also integrated ways for guests to more seamlessly complete Covid waivers and provide proof of Vaccination at the event registration stage to make check-in a smoother process. I also used a few platforms for sending swag bags and for building and managing online auctions for fundraising events. I don't know that I'll ever need to use these platforms again, but the auction platforms in particular were really easy to use.
As we see virtual meetings transition back to face to face, hybrid meetings are beginning to be the vehicle to return to normalcy. What are your thoughts on hybrid meetings versus traditional fully in person meetings?
I think hybrid meetings and conferences are great. When the goal of the event is information sharing, it really is a no-brainer and opens the audience up to a global scale when travel isn't a prohibiting factor. For experiential events, in my opinion these have not been as successful virtually hosted. I tried producing a few online social events. When the only senses being activated are sight and sound and both are from behind a screen, you have little control over the guest's overall experience and it's just not as impactful.
In your opinion, what do you think the biggest value for your attendees is in regards to returning to live events?
Definitely being able to fully experience the event with all sense activated and in-person human connection. There's no replacement.
As the pandemic fades away and we return to face-to-face events what do you hope changes, either for planners or hoteliers, in the traditional RFP and proposal process as a result of all of the learnings from the last 20+ months?
So many venues and vendors I worked with during the pandemic were understanding and I really appreciated that. I know it was hard during the shut down and everyone was struggling, but I think the systems and practices that came from that ended up protecting everyone.
This post is part of the HopSkip Planner Spotlight Series where HopSkip spotlight's planners across the industry to bring awareness of how they adapted to COVID-19, communicating and lessons learned and sharing how they are viewing the meetings and events industry in a post-pandemic world.